Friday, December 28, 2007

Top 5 rides for 2007

I did a fair number of rides in a lot of places this year and I decided to take a moment to look back at my favorites. These rides are my favorites in retrospect by the way, not all were pleasant at the time, but they most certainly are the ones I look back on the most fondly.

This was the pre-ride from hell for Star and I. I can't recall ever seeing weather going so bad so fast, not from a bike saddle anyway. I was dressed for summer from the waist down, not really the best for the ~55 degree start, much less the 30 degree temperature drop that happened over the following two hours. Being well insulated like I am I handled the cold rather well and warmed up pretty quickly once back in the car. While all outward appearances would lead the casual observer to believe that Star was better prepared it took a full two hours for her to stop shivering from the cold once we started for home.

It's where I got my mountain bike start and holds a place near and dear in my heart. This was my first ride at RSP in over four years. I was looking forward to it for quite some time and it didn't disappoint. Len and I did the basic loop that we used to ride all the time back in the day and I was tickled to find it just as enjoyable now as it was then.

The hardest day I had in the last year, got my ass handed to me too. I had been pretty sick all week and running on no sleep. It was also my first coast to coast National ride. I don't think there was a single moment that I actually enjoyed at the time but it all seems like so much fun looking back on it. I would really like to give it another go one of these days.